Zizek on Syriza

Leftists all around Europe complain how today no one dares to really disturb the neoliberal dogma. The problem is real, of course: the moment one violates this dogma, or rather, the moment one is just perceived as a possible agent of such disturbance, tremendous forces are unleashed. Although these forces appear as objective economic factors, they are effectively forces of illusions, of ideology. But their material power is nonetheless utterly destructive. Today we are under the tremendous pressure of what we should call “enemy propaganda.” Let me quote Alain Badiou: “The goal of all enemy propaganda is not to annihilate an existing force (this function is generally left to police forces), but rather to annihilate an unnoticed possibility of the situation.” In other words, enemy propaganda tries to kill hope: the message of this propaganda is a resigned conviction that the world we live in, even if not the best of all possible worlds, is the least bad one, so any radical change could only make it worse.

Somebody has to make the first move and cut the Gordian knot of neoliberal dogma. Indeed, let us not forget that those who preach this dogma – from the US to Germany – violate it freely when it suits them. Syriza’s struggle reaches far beyond a simple struggle for welfare. It is the struggle for an entire way of life, the resistance of a world threatened by rapid globalization or, rather, of a culture with its daily rituals and manners, which are threatened by post-historical commodification. Is this resistance conservative? Today’s mainstream self-declared political and cultural conservatives are not really conservatives. Fully endorsing capitalism’s continuous self-revolutionizing, they just want to make it more efficient by supplementing it with some traditional institutions (religion, etc.) to contain its destructive consequences for social life and to maintain social cohesion. A true conservative today is one who fully admits the antagonisms and deadlocks of global capitalism, one who rejects simple progressivism, and is attentive to the dark obverse of progress.

This is why I profess a deep respect for Syriza’s struggle. The very fact that they persist makes us all free: we all know that as long as Syriza is there, there is a chance for all of us.

via potemkinreview.com